High Potential signed off the air for 2025 on October 28 with the show’s fall finale. It was a fun episode in which Morgan and the team worked to find an art thief, but in typical fashion the episode brought about many twists and turns – though, this time, the writers left fans with more questions than answers.
While there were many questions to process from the cliffhangers left unresolved in the episode, one burning question on the mind following their viewing of the episode is connected to what came after the episode ended. Before the credits rolled on the episode, the High Potential team took a moment to honor Nicolas Jean with a dedication card.
“In Memory of Nicolas Jean,” read the dedication at the end of the episode. The moment caught the attention of viewers, understandably so. Dedication cards are designed to honor those connected to the show, typically following the loss of a member of the show’s cast or creative team.
In this instance, High Potential’s dedication was to the man responsible for helping to make ABC’s history-making show a reality. Jean was a French screenwriter who co-created HPI, the hit series that was adapted in the U.S. as High Potential. In other words, without Jean's hit series, we'd never have gotten the Kaitlin Olson-led series.
Jean sadly passed away in late September at the age of 63. The news was confirmed via the French writers’ guild SACD, who remembered Jean for his meteoric rise in the industry as a self-taught writer who quickly established himself as a talented screenwriter.
“Nicolas Jean entered the industry thirteen years ago and had a meteoric rise. Self-taught, with an atypical background that enriched his fictional stories, he quickly established himself as a talented and essential screenwriter on television,” screenwriter and SACD administrator Florence Philipponnat reflected in a tribute. (H/T Deadline) "He had a gift for freely inventing original concepts, freeing himself from imposed constraints. And he knew how to intelligently surround himself with creative writers to develop them with him, because he was passionate about sharing and generosity.”
According to Philipponnat, Jean was inspired by one of his sons who was diagnosed with HPI, also known as high intellectual potential. This inspired the concept of the show – and its title – which centers around a single mom of three kids who finds work as a consultant, where she uses her high intellectual potential to help solve crimes. HPI ran for three seasons from 2021 to 2023, coming to a close after just 20 episodes. Fittingly, the tribute aired at the end of the seventh episode of season 2, which just so happened to be the show’s 20th episode in its run.
While Jean was not directly connected to the High Potential creative team, without HPI there would be no Morgan Gillroy or any show at all. The tribute was a sweet way to honor his legacy and the imprint he has left on the TV landscape.